Paytm, amid massive speculation and build-up towards an impending IPO, has confirmed the same via a notification to its existing shareholders. In a note sent to existing shareholders today, Paytm is seeking approval on its intention of going public. The company said it plans to raise money by issuing fresh equity in the IPO, and also sell existing shareholders’ shares at the event. The digital payment giant has also offered its employees the option to sell their stakes in the firm.
Paytm’s IPO isn’t really news anymore. Last week, reports came in that the company is looking to raise as much as $3Bn in the IPO, seeking a valuation of a staggering $30Bn. In terms of raise and valuation, the IPO could be India’s biggest till date. Paytm’s investors include Berkshire Hathaway Inc., SoftBank Group Corp., and Ant Group Co.
With over 20 million merchant partners and 1.4 billion monthly transactions, Vijay Sekhar Sharma’s Paytm is the leading player in the digital payments market, competing against Google Pay, Amazon Pay, PhonePe, and other players in a massively competitive market.
With the sheer size and numbers that Paytm operates in, IPO is perhaps the logical conclusion to the company’s rise in past decade. Big ticket investors such as Softbank and Alibaba’s Ant Group will be hoping for the IPO to be successful, since that is the only route that helps them make money on their massive bets. The company reported a consolidated loss of $233.6 million for the financial year that ended in March this year, down from $404 million a year ago.
Paytm however, isn’t the only Indian startup to have expressed intentions of going public. Several of India’s first-gen startups — Zomato, Flipkart among others — are also setting themselves up for a public listing.
